Gem install ffi Failed to build gem native extension

Question

I'm having troubles to do bundle install in one project I get to work on in Rails 4.2.10. When I bundle I receive the next error:

An error occurred while installing ffi (1.9.25), and Bundler cannot continue. Make sure that gem install ffi -v '1.9.25' succeeds before bundling.

In Gemfile:
  s3_direct_upload was resolved to 0.1.6, which depends on
    sass-rails was resolved to 5.0.7, which depends on
      sass was resolved to 3.6.0, which depends on
        sass-listen was resolved to 4.0.0, which depends on
          rb-inotify was resolved to 0.9.10, which depends on
            ffi

When I run gem install ffi -v '1.9.25' also an error occurs:

Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing ffi:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    current directory: /xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25/ext/ffi_c
/xxx/xxx/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.5.3/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20190110-6923-1jimorr.rb extconf.rb
checking for ffi.h... no
checking for ffi.h in /usr/local/include,/usr/include/ffi... yes
checking for ffi_call() in -lffi... yes
checking for ffi_closure_alloc()... no
checking for ffi_raw_call()... no
checking for shlwapi.h... no
checking for ruby/thread.h... yes
checking for rb_thread_blocking_region()... no
checking for rb_thread_call_with_gvl()... yes
checking for rb_thread_call_without_gvl()... yes
creating extconf.h
creating Makefile

current directory: /xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25/ext/ffi_c
make "DESTDIR=" clean

current directory: /xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25/ext/ffi_c
make "DESTDIR="
Configuring libffi
clang: error: unsupported option '-print-multi-os-directory'
clang: error: no input files
cd "/xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25/ext/ffi_c/libffi-x86_64-darwin18" && /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/make
/bin/sh: /Volumes/Macintosh: No such file or directory
make: *** ["/xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25/ext/ffi_c/libffi-x86_64-darwin18"/.libs/libffi_convenience.a] Error 127

make failed, exit code 2

Gem files will remain installed in /xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/gems/ffi-1.9.25 for inspection.
Results logged to /xxx/xxx/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.5.3/extensions/x86_64-darwin-18/2.5.0/ffi-1.9.25/gem_make.out

I've been trying many solutions online but cannot resolve this issue. Seems the issue is with my system as I'm new to the team and the other developers were unable to help me as they do not have this kind of issue.

Answer 1

I was able to successfully install ffi with the following command:

LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/libffi/lib" PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/opt/libffi/lib/pkgconfig" gem install ffi -v '1.9.25'

Found on some japanese board

Answer 2

According to the libffi README, only GCC is a tested compiler on macOS. You are using Clang, which doesn't support the command line option -print-multi-os-directory.

You need to either patch libffi to work with Clang, or use GCC.